Schmidt Says Encryption Will Help Google Penetrate China

By Rebecca Blumenstein

Davos, Switzerland Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company is intent on using encryption technologies to penetrate countries with strict censorship rules, such as China and North Korea.

It is possible, within the next decade, using encryption, we would be able to open up countries that have strict censorship laws giving people a voice, Schmidt said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos.

In the wake of the disclosures about surveillance by the National Security Agency, Schmidt said Google has been working to strengthen its encryption so governments wont be able to penetrate it. This creates a problem for governments like Chinas, Schmidt added.

Google moved its search services out of China in 2010 and relocated to Hong Kong, because of concerns about censorship and cyberattacks, but Schmidt said that the company watches developments there closely. He said that YouTube is totally blocked and that Gmail works sporadically.

Schmidt said the growing number of people using social media in China will ultimately overcome government censorship.

The Google chairman said he views the Chinese as technological equals, but he blamed them for most of the worlds industrial espionage. Eighty to 85% of industrial espionage is thought to be done by China. Its a real problem. No other country comes close, Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the global debate over privacy sparked by the NSA disclosures is a good thing. Because you can do this monitoring does not mean you should do this monitoring, he said.

Asked about comments by a Microsoft executive that the company may allow non-U.S. customers to store their data outside the U.S., Schmidt said, I dont understand it.

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Schmidt Says Encryption Will Help Google Penetrate China